E-mu Keyboards Great Falls MT

-mu's LONGboard 61 and SHORTboard 49 are the first E-mu hardware keyboards since the Proteus PK-6. Combining robust MIDI controller functions and great internal sounds from the best of the Proteus family is enough bang-for-buck given that these bad boys sell for real-world prices of about $400 for the 61-key version and $350 for the 49-key version. But E-mu upped the ante from there. They have aftertouch, which is pretty much unheard of in synths at this price.

E-mu Keyboards

E-mu's LONGboard 61 and SHORTboard 49 are the first E-mu hardware keyboards since the Proteus PK-6. Combining robust MIDI controller functions and great internal sounds from the best of the Proteus family is enough bang-for-buck given that these bad boys sell for real-world prices of about $400 for the 61-key version and $350 for the 49-key version. But E-mu upped the ante from there. They have aftertouch, which is pretty much unheard of in synths at this price.

They have a small but intelligently-chosen complement of knobs, to control filter cutoff and resonance, and envelope attack and release (or decay, depending on the patch). When you think about it, that's the stuff you reach for 90% of the time, anyway: "This pad would make a great comping sound if only it had a quicker attack," or "A little more (or less) cutoff, and this lead would be perfect." On top of that, both models transmit audio wirelessly to an E-mu PIPEline receiver you can patch into your mixer. With guitar-strap pins on the 49-key model, you've got a real wireless synth.

E-mu's Michael Lee dropped both review units off at our mothership, and editor Stephen Fortner got to try them out in these videos. If you can't see the window below, CLICK HERE to open the video separately.